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Criminalization of opioids is costing lives: Cole

If we’re going to use every available resource to treat this epidemic, we have to stop criminalizing it.

Pierre Gregoire died Feb. 15 of an overdose at the age of 28 in the bathroom of a Toronto restaurant near Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. "Criminalization has failed to prevent drugs from being sold and consumed in the area, just as it has failed to stop people from overdosing in local laneways and fast food washrooms," writes Desmond Cole. (YouTube)

By Desmond Cole

Thu., March 2, 2017

When I worked at a drop-in centre for youth over a decade ago, our staff carried keys to the facility’s washrooms at all times. We were always prepared for the possibility that young people we served might lock themselves in the washrooms to get high, particularly by using opioid drugs, and fall unconscious due to an overdose.

The youth we served didn’t want to be seen using opioids — mere possession of the stuff is criminal, and the added stigma of injecting drugs compelled them to get high in the most secluded and therefore dangerous places. It’s encouraging that Toronto has finally approved supervised injection sites so people who use opiate can do so more safely. But our country still hasn’t dealt with the larger issue of drug criminalization, which keeps people who need support in fear and in hiding.

Two weeks ago, 28-year-old Pierre Gregoire died after a fatal drug overdose in the washroom of a downtown restaurant. Police believe Gregoire used heroin that was mixed with a far more powerful opiod called fentanyl, which has caused hundreds of fatal overdoses across Canada in recent years.

It’s illegal to sell fentanyl in Canada for recreational use, and it should be. At the same time, we have to stop subjecting people like Gregoire, who was openly struggling with his addiction, to criminal penalties for using fentanyl and other hard drugs. Homeless and underhoused drug users, who are already criminalized for being poor, are most vulnerable to fatal overdose — their lack of shelter and privacy forces them to use in public washrooms, alleyways, ravines, and other unsafe places.

I had never heard of fentanyl until the mid 2000s, when young people I served at the drop-in centre near Queen Street W. and Spadina Ave. started using it. That drop-in centre, now closed, was located in the same city block as the restaurant where Gregoire overdosed. His story reminds me of another young man I used to serve named Eric, who died in a parking garage on the very same block after a fatal overdose.

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Services for the homeless have been concentrated near Queen and Spadina for many years. As a result, the intersection has also been the site of endless police patrols to catch homeless people who are selling, possessing and using drugs. Criminalization has failed to prevent drugs from being sold and consumed in the area, just as it has failed to stop people from overdosing in local laneways and fast food washrooms. No amount of money can stop the drug activity, but we keep on spending to keep it dangerously out of sight.

Last week advocates, health care professionals, community workers, and affected families in several Canadian cities held a National Day of Action on the Overdose Crisis. Many of them are asking the federal government to consider decriminalizing or legalizing the use of hard drugs, and even providing prescriptions for people dealing with their addictions. I yearn for the day our governments welcome such reforms as common sense, as good public policy. For now, politicians devote piles of money to drug enforcement, and tacitly condemn drug users for bringing the pain on themselves.

Insite, North America’s pioneering supervised injection facility in Vancouver, has been saving lives in that city since it opened in 2003. In addition to providing more safety for drug users, Insite also serves as a centre for counselling, referrals, and medical care. Former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried and failed to have Insite closed, but no new sites were approved during his tenure.

“We as a government will not use taxpayers’ money to fund drug use,” Harper said in 2006. His successor Justin Trudeau and the Liberals have been more open to a harm reduction approach, which seeks to work with drug users instead of moralizing their choices. However, Trudeau is now poised to oversee a system in which only those in big cities will have access to safe, legal places to use hard drugs. Many who could have access may still choose not to go, especially if we continue to reinforce drug stigma through our jails and courts.

Provincial estimates suggest more than 1,000 Canadians die of unintended drug overdoses each year. If we’re going to use every available resource to treat this epidemic, we have to stop criminalizing it.

Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based journalist. His column appears every second Thursday.

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